But Republican State Senator Eric Schmitt is promoting a different kind of gun bill -- one that doesn't focus on access to weapons, but rather how the courts are prosecuting gun crimes in the St. Louis

Senate Bill 448 would create what's called a "special armed offender docket" in the circuit court of St. Louis that Schmitt says would allow for a more focused approach to crimes involving weapons. As part of this proposal, the court would have two judges dedicated to gun crimes.

"They would deal with crimes like armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon...a lot of the crimes that are reported every night on the evening news," he explains.

Within six months after each anniversary of the creation of any armed offender docket, the circuit court shall provide and publish a public report on the operations of the armed offender docket during the year preceding the anniversary, including any commentary on such operations as may be offered by such research university or a prosecuting attorney, circuit attorney, or law enforcement agency in said circuit.

That means that the courts would do a better job of tracking and studying trends of gun violence in St. Louis, he says.